Case Study: Bike Sharing System

Winston Koh

Background

  • Cyclistic is a fictional bike-share company in Chicago (based on the real-life Divvy bike-share program).
  • Casual riders are customers who purchase single-ride or full-day passes.
  • Members are customers who purchase annual memberships.

Problem

  • Annual members are much more profitable than casual riders.
  • Maximizing the number of annual members will be key to future growth.
  • We want to design a marketing strategy to convert casual riders into members.

Questions of Interest

  1. How do annual members and casual riders use Cyclistic bikes differently?
  2. Why would casual riders buy Cyclistic annual memberships?
  3. How can Cyclistic use digital media to influence casual riders to become members?

Data

We have data on bike trips from the year 2024 with the following data for each trip:

  • Customer type (Casual or Member)
  • Trip start date + time and end date + time
  • Trip start location and end location
  • Ride type (Electric bike, Classic bike, or Electric scooter)

Data Considerations

  • The data originates from Divvy’s publicly available data.
  • Each trip is anonymized.
  • Trips that were below 60 seconds in length are excluded.
    • These are potentially false starts or users trying to re-dock a bike to ensure it was secure.

Findings

Most rides are taken by members, and member trips are usually shorter than casual rider trips.

Trips by Hour

Both member and casual rider trips peak in the afternoon, though members have a small peak in the morning.

Trips by Day of Week

Members take more trips during weekdays, while casual riders take more trips during weekends.

Member trip durations are relatively constant throughout the week, while casual rider trip durations are longer on the weekends.

Trips by Month

Trips are more frequent in the warmer months for both members and casual riders.

During the warmer months, members trips are slightly longer, while casual rider trips are much longer.

Trips by Destination

The 20 most frequent destinations of casual rider trips are recreational areas by the waterfront.

The 20 most frequent destinations of member trips include the downtown area, transit centers, and The University of Chicago.

Summary

  • Casual riders tend to take longer bike trips (especially on weekends and during the warmer months) to recreational areas on the waterfront.
  • Members tend to take shorter, more consistently long trips to the downtown area.
  • This suggests that casual riders tend to take trips for leisure while members tend to take trips for commuting to work/school.

Recommendations

  • Conduct a survey to confirm this hypothesis
  • Try to convert casual riders to use our bike-sharing service for commuting and regular use.
  • Use digital media to emphasize the benefits of commuting by bike over other forms of transit.